1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing optically active hydroxyalkylphosphonates.
2. Description of the Background Art
Optically active hydroxyalkylphosphonates are compounds, which are useful as physiologically active substances, and moreover in recent years, have attracted much attention in the fields of bioorganic chemistry and medical chemistry as important intermediates for phosphonic analogues of amino acid-based peptides, haptens in catalytic antibody chemistry, etc., and as important intermediates for fosfomycin which is one of practical antibiotics.
The optically active hydroxyalkylphosphonates have heretofore been obtained by optical resolution. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 19264/1974 has proposed a process in which 1-propenylphosphonic acid is converted to its halohydrin with hypohalogen acid, and the halohydrin is then optically resolved by an optically resolving agent using optically active .alpha.-phenetylamine to obtain a (+)-threo-(1-halo-2-hydroxypropyl)phosphonic acid derivative.
Besides, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 22593/1988 has proposed a process in which 1-propenyl-phosphonic acid is esterified with tartaric acid and then converted to its halohydrin, and the halohydrin is optically resolved, thereby obtaining an optically active 1-halo-2-hydroxypropylphosphonic acid.
As described above, the conventional processes for producing the optically active hydroxyalkylphosphonates have used an expensive, optically resolving agent or required a multi-step reaction process. There has thus been a demand for development of a process capable of more simply and cheaply producing optically active hydroxyalkylphosphonates having a high optical purity.